The global edible insects market has gained increasing demand in the last few years due to the growing awareness of the hazards of conserving the traditional nonvegetarian diet. Chicken, cattle, pork, and mutton are among the most widely consumed types of meat around the world. However, raising the respective animals for consumption is a highly resource-intensive process and has the potential to harm the environment severely. The growing awareness of this threat is a major driver for the global edible insects market.

High Efficiency of Insect Production Drives Global Edible Insect Market

Conventional livestock animals such as cattle and chicken are advanced organisms, resulting in an inefficient conversion of animal feed into proteins. In contrast, the relatively primitive nature of insect biology means that a much higher percentage of the feed is converted into proteins, since other biological systems are relatively less complicated in insects. The amount of protein generated from insects with 1 kg of animal feed is 12 times that of the amount generated from cattle from the same volume of feed. This is a key driver propelling the global edible insects market, since the amount of arable land on which conventional livestock animals can be raised is decreasing.

High Production of Pollutants in Conventional Livestock Farming Drives Edible Insects Market

Conventional livestock animals, which are much larger than insects and have much more developed herd instincts, need a lot more land than edible insects. In times of increasing food scarcity, the availability of fertile land is becoming a major global concern, casting a shadow on traditional livestock farming. Edible insects can be raised in much smaller enclosures due not only to their smaller size but their absence of advanced herd instincts, which means they don’t need nearly as much individual space as other livestock animals.

Raising livestock animals also results in a much higher consumption of water than with edible insects. The high production of greenhouse gases in livestock farming is also a major driver for the global edible insects market. The pollution caused by livestock animals is thought to be worse than cars in the global perspective. Edible insects, which do not cause as much environmental pollution and require much less water, are thus gaining demand across the world.